1 Tim. iv. 10

For therefore we hath labour and suffer reproach, because tve trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe, — 1 Tim. iv. 10.

These words stand among others, which are f said to contain, in express terms, the doctrine of general redemption. But,

1. If these words represent God, as the Saviour of all 7nen, in the sense of a spiritual and eternal salvation, they prove more than any, unless Origen and his followers, contend for, namely, an universal salvation. To say that Christ is the Saviour of all men, with respect to the impetration of salvation for them, though not with respect to the application of it to them all, is a distinction, which must, in part, make the death of Christ in vain; nor can a mere possibility of salvation, nor a conditional one, nor a putting of men into a salvable state, be intended; for then they that believe, would be only in such

* Eph. ii. 14 — 18. t Wliitby, of Redemption, p. 113; cd. 2. 111.

a precarious and uncertain state; whereas it is certain, that he that helievetk shall be saved. Besides, if God is the Saviour of all men, in the sense of eternal salvation, then he must be the Saviour of unbelievers, contrary to many expi-ess passages of Scripture; sue!) as John iii. 18, “^(S; Mark xvi. 16; Kev. xxi. 8.

2. The words are to be understood of providential goodness and temporal salvation; which all men have a share in, more or less. God the Father, and not Christ, is here called the Uvhig (iod, who is the Saviour of all men, that is, the preserve?’ of all men; who supports them in their being, and supplies them with all the necessaries of life, and especiallij them that believe, who are the particular care of his providence; for though he is good, and does good to all men, yet more especially to the household of faith; which was the foundation of the apostles’ trust in him, under all their labours and reproaches, which attended the preaching of the gospel. Which sense of the words is perfectly agreeable both to the analogy of faith, and to the context, and is owned by some* who are on the other side of the question.